Friday, December 4, 2009

For the Sake of Quality Control...

ARI in collaboration with the Association of Malay Certified Accounting Firms (AMCAF) and the Malaysian Accountancy Research & Education Foundation (MAREF) organized a one-day seminar on Implementing ISQC 1, especially for the small and medium practitioners (SMPs).
The seminar which was held at the Putra Hotel Kuala Lumpur was attended by 250 participants. ISQC 1 which stands for the International Standards on Quality Control was issued by the International Federation of Accountant (IFAC), of which Malaysia is a member country.
The emphasis of ISQC 1 is on the documentation and communication of internal quality procedures and policies. Auditors must ensure that they have in place written and communicated policies on a) Leadership, b) Ethical requirements, c) Acceptance and continuance of client relationships, d) Human resources, e) Engagement performance and f) Monitoring. Policies and procedures need only be sufficiently detailed to provide clarity of purpose and to ensure consistency of application, given the size and nature of the firm.
These established procedures should demonstrate compliance with the principles of ISQC 1 and the auditor should also ensure that the procedures are carried out in practice. For sole practitioners, it is important to be confident that the policies and procedures adopted are both technically sound and appropriate in the circumstances. Once an auditor or audit firm has developed its quality control policies and procedures, one needs to comply with those policies and procedures and be able to produce documented evidence of the operation of its quality control system.
This will facilitate the monitoring element of quality control required by ISQC 1. The most interesting aspects of the seminar is the unexpectedly high number of participants. That shows that people are eager to learn something new... Congratulations to all.

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